City of Spells (Into the Crooked Place #2) - Alexandra Christo Page 0,82
you are,” she said. “You know as well as I do that she can never find out. That’s why you asked to speak to me alone.”
Karam couldn’t deny the truth.
They didn’t know how Wesley would react with Tavia’s life on the line, and as much as Karam hated to admit it, Saxony couldn’t be trusted when it came to her sister. She had a history of refusing to see the worst in Zekia, and if it came down to her sister’s life or her friend’s, Karam wasn’t sure who Saxony would choose.
Saxony couldn’t face the harsh truth that Zekia might not be worth saving.
It would be up to Karam to do what needed to be done, before Tavia’s life was sacrificed. It was her job as one of the sole surviving descendants of the Rekhi d’Rihsni. Saving Crafters and the world had to be more important than saving just one person.
I will protect my friends, Karam thought. No matter what.
“Okay,” Karam said. “We keep this between us and Arjun.”
She clutched the pendant, tied tightly around her neck.
This was the way for her to redeem herself for the mission gone wrong. She would respect Tavia’s wishes and do whatever it took to make sure that vision never came true.
Karam would not give their enemies any more chances.
If it came down to Tavia or Zekia, then she knew what she’d have to do.
And she wouldn’t hesitate.
28
Tavia
TAVIA TWIRLED HER KNIFE and thought about death.
She’d lived each day knowing every one might be her last. That was the price that came with being a busker: pockets full of magic and uncertain futures. She thought she’d be prepared to die when the day came, but that was when it was a maybe or a what-if and not when it was a vision her friend had seen, clear as day.
Now that Tavia knew she was going to die, she wasn’t ready.
She didn’t want to go.
She didn’t want to leave Wesley when it seemed like they were finally on the cusp of being something.
“We have one day left until Schulze gets here. She is taking time out from defending Yejlath from being the next city to fall,” Wesley said. “And I haven’t heard a good idea yet.”
Tavia licked her dry lips and tried to push the thought of dying from her mind. They had a war to win and if she was going down, then she’d make sure everyone she cared about was safe first.
“Who knew it wouldn’t be easy coming up with a plan to defeat an army of mind-controlled killers?” she asked.
Wesley gave her the side-eye and rolled up his shirtsleeves. “In case you didn’t notice, we have an army too. And it’s not like we’ve ever actually been in a fair fight before.”
Tavia shrugged in response, because she knew Wesley had a point but she never wanted to admit it when it happened.
If Arjun were here, he would have called Wesley out on never playing fair, but what Arjun needed now wasn’t more strategy and planning. It was time to mourn before he was forced to face more death.
“Weird how all that’s standing between Dante Ashwood and success are us misfits,” Tavia said. “We’re in for a ride.”
She hadn’t meant it to be comforting, but oddly, after she said it she felt a little more ease creep into her heart. After so long with so many people intercepting their makeshift crew, coming and going and living and dying, it felt almost nostalgic to have just the four of them in a room again. Plotting like old times, readying to finish the battle they had started together.
It took Tavia back to the train journey, when they had first fled Creije and headed for Karam’s homeland of Granka. Just her, Wesley, Saxony, and Karam, interrupted rarely by odd buskers who’d count the hours for them, or look at Wesley like they wanted desperately for him to give them an order. Tell them how to piss properly or chew with their mouths closed. Just waiting for any kind of direction from a fearless leader they had learned to rely on. But despite those interruptions, it had still just been the four of them.
They had begun this journey together and now they would end it that way.
As a crew, except that they rarely agreed on anything.
As a team, except that they rarely trusted each other.
As a family, except that sometimes they hated each other.
Actually, Tavia supposed that made the family part even more accurate.